Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

1859 – 1930

Overview• British novelist, short story

writer, poet, doctor of medicine

• Born in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 22, 1859

• Studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh (where he met Dr. Joseph Bell)

As a child…• His father, a chronic alcoholic,

was later committed to an insane asylum

• He had a special bond with his mom:– “In my early childhood, as far as I can

remember anything at all, the vivid stories she would tell me stand out so clearly …”

– “My mother had been so splendid that I could not fail her.”

As a teenager…• His wealthy family members paid for

him to go to boarding school• Athletic: cricket, football/soccer,

sailing• Smart: “He was often found,

surrounded by a bevy of totally enraptured younger students, listening to the amazing stories he would make up to amuse them.”

• SURPRISE! He decides to go to medical school.

As a doctor…• Opened his own

medical practice, but wasmoderately successful

• In his down time, he continued writing stories…

As an adult…• Married Louise “Touie”

Hawkins– “gentle and amiable”– They had 2 children.– She died of TB in 1906.

• Married Jean Leckie in 1907 … after meeting her in 1897– They had 3 children:

Denis, Adrian, & Lena Jean– He spoke his last words to her:

“You are wonderful.”

As an author…• Wrote an article about the Boer

War, and was knighted in 1902• Wrote many historical articles and

nonfiction works

Death• Found clutching his chest in the

hall of his home in East Sussex, England

• Died of heart attack on July, 7, 1930, aged 71

• Tombstone in New Forest, Hampshire reads:

STEEL TRUEBLADE STRAIGHT

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLEKNIGHT

PATRIOT, PHYSICIAN & MAN OF LETTERS

Major works• Sherlock Holmes: 4 novels & 56 short

stories– Originally published short stories monthly in

the Strand Magazine– 1st novel, 1886: A Study in Scarlet, including

Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson– 1st book of short stories (12): The Adventures

of Sherlock Holmes , in 1892– 2nd collection: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes,

in 1894– “The Speckled Band” was written in 1907 and

performed as a successful play

Sherlock Holmes• Most famous fictional detective of

all time• Based on Conan Doyle’s medical

professor, Dr. Joseph Bell - gifted at observation, logic, deduction, and diagnosis

• Lived at 221B Baker Street, London

• Many readers thought Holmes was REAL!

World’s Best Detective

• Courageous• Clever• Attention to details• Eccentric

Dr. John Watson

• Assistant, sidekick• Narrator – loyal, gentleman,

observes• Average intelligence• Foil

R.I.P. Holmes• After two novels and 24 short stories,

Conan Doyle grew tired of Holmes and wanted to spend his time with more “important” work - so he killed him off in the short story “The Final Problem” in 1893.

• How? In a battle with his nemesis, Professor Moriarty! They both fall to their deaths at the Reichenbach Falls.

• Readers were OUTRAGED! – Wore black armbands– Sent death threats to Conan Doyle– Placed memorials at the Reichenbach Falls

But then…• While vacationing in 1901,

ACD was playing golf with his friend, Bertram Fletcher Robinson.

• Robinson told him of a local legend about Squire Richard Cabell, a monstrously evil man, whose death came at the mouths of a pack of huge, fire-breathing hounds (called Black Shucks)…

• Conan Doyle could NOT pass this up… and he didn’t really want to invent a new detective, so to his readers’ joy, he made Holmes his main character once again.

• Incidentally, he did not bring Holmes back to life (yet), but he set the story at an earlier time in Holmes’ life.

Holmes returns!

• Eventually, Conan Doyle did decide to bring back Holmes, and he did so in a story called “The Adventure of the Empty House.”

• Apparently, Holmes had faked his own death to fool Moriarty’s henchmen.

• ACD went on to write 32 more stories and one more novel before officially retiring his famous detective.

Weird, but true…

• ACD wrote a book called The Coming of the Fairies (1921).

• He was convinced that fairies existed and proved it by adding photographs.

• The photographs were actually faked by two young girls - the “fairies” were paper cutouts!

The Cottingley Fairies

Legacy of Holmes

• “Christopher Clausen asserts confidently that ‘few characters in all of literature are as widely known as Sherlock Holmes.’”

• “221B Baker Street—or the closest thing to it that can be identified in the modern London thoroughfare—is a pilgrimage site for faithful Holmes devotees from around the world.”

Ranks 9th on the Fictional 100

Most Influential Characters in World

Literature“Each generation wants to see its own Holmes in action. At least twenty-one plays have been based on aspects of Holmes’s life.”

Film

“Holmes’s life in films is even more spectacular. The Guinness World Records 2000 lists him as the character most often portrayed in film.”

ReferencesKocsik, Diana. “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and The Hound

of

the Baskervilles.” SlideShare, 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2011.

Pollard-Gott, Lucy. “Sherlock Holmes (9).” The Fictional 100,

2009. Web. 15 Oct. 2011.

Sherlock Holmes Online. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary

Estate, 2000. Web. 15 Oct. 2011.